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An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil—he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good—he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you—and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

While we wait for the new FBI headquarters to come to Prince George's County (we ARE working on this right?),
I wonder what active steps we are taking to market what we have already here to
work with. There are approximately 34
federal agencies and departments, bureaus and organizations locate already
right now here in our county. How are we letting the rest of the region and the
country know what is here; what are we doing to identify the vendor opportunities
as well as any private public partnerships that may be possible with these
public agencies? Who is or are our local liaisons to each of these federal organizations?
How are we working with them to "market" their needs to the private
sector?

I understand that none of this
will fix our core community challenges; that working closely with existing
federal agencies will not change any economic dynamics over night, but ignoring
what we have most certainly will change nothing. With the looming 2013 federal
budget cuts, we need to be strongly investing in private businesses to create
new jobs. The federal government is not leaving but it may not be hiring. We
need private enterprise to step in and build upon what we already have.

To do
this we need to not only provide incentives but we need to speak about both
obvious and not-so-obvious potential that our location , infrastructure and existing
market platforms give us. And of course we need retail; my point is not that
we should stop building malls, but that this cannot by itself be a solution to
a vigorous sustainable Prince George's economy. Retail is vital part not the
end all; retail follows innovation and money. Enterprise and entrepreneurs' do
not follow strip malls. We can do this;
we can bring innovative industries from bioscience and agro tech as well as the information systems sector here to Prince George's County.

Slavery
and Horticulture: A History of Salubria
~ An Oxon Hill Plantation

February 15, 7 pm

Join
the discussion about the economic, political, horticultural and social history
of one of Oxon Hill’s largest plantations, Salubria and its international
recognition in the development of many plant species.

John
Peter Thompson, historian and lecturer on American and European histories; his
presentations have included discussions on the U.S. Supreme Court, modern management concepts and techniques gleaned from Civil War battlefields, and
“First Ladies” of the White House.

John
Peter Thompson studied music composition
and historical linguistics at the University of Maryland. He left the University to successfully
operate his own night club business for ten years. He returned to the family nursery and garden
center business in 1988 starting as a warehouse janitor and finishing as CEO
and Chairman of the Board in 2008.
During this time he managed the perennial production and sales and was
awarded the Perennial Plant Association Retailer of the Year award in 2000.

He
is currently a self employed contractor and consultant working with USDA ARS,
APHIS, Forest Service and the National Park Service, as well as the Africa
Trade Office of Maryland (Parker & Associates).His areas of expertise
include document aggregation and review, meeting facilitation and bioeconomic policy
and regulatory analysis.

He
has an appointment as an adjunct instructor with the Prince George’s Community
College lecturing and consulting on the creation of an "Environmental/Sustainable/Green Jobs” Workforce Development Institute. And
finally, he is a principle investigator for the North East Mid West Institute
in Washington, DC having written a book on national
invasive species certification policies.

John
Peter as been reappointed to the National Invasive Species Council Advisory
Committee (NISC ISAC) having previously served as Vice Chair and Secretary. He is
the Maryland Nursery & Landscape Association liaison to the Maryland
Invasive Species Council and expert subject matter member of the State of
Maryland's Invasive Plant Council. He also is an active
user of social media ‘Tweeting” daily @InvasiveNoteswith over 6000 followers as well as
writing essays about social, scientific and philosophic issues on his blogs, Invasive Notes (www.ipetrus.blogspot.com) and the Prince
Georgian (http://princegeorgian.blogspot.com/).

John Peter works as a
volunteer advocate to politicians and policy makers as President of the
National Agricultural Research Alliance – Beltsville (NARA-B.org - 501c4). In this capacity he works with Congress, local
governments and policy makers on behalf of the people and programs of USDA ARS
and APHIS, in particular focusing on the Henry A. Wallace Agricultural Research
Center (BARC) and the National Agricultural Library (NAL).

John
Peter is a former Chair of the Prince George’s County Chamber of Commerce as
well as former founding director and President of the Mid Atlantic Exotic Pest
Plant Council; and former President of the Maryland Nursery & Landscape
Association. He currently serves as a
technical advisor and national credit steward for the LBJ Wild Flower Center’s
Sustainable Landscape Initiative (SSI or SITES). At a community level he serves as the Vice
Chair of the Prince George’s County Historical Preservation Commission; as a
trustee of the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System; and director of
the Prince George County Community Foundation

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Everyone
is interested in economic development in Prince George's County, Maryland, and
some even have an interest in economic development for Prince George's County. But what is this thing we call economic
development? Why do so many care about it, and why is it so important? Broadly
defined, economic development is a hopefully positive change in the level of
production of goods and services by a community over a ore-agreed-to period of
time. Economic growth either up or down is a function of the dynamics of development. Economic growth from development processes is usually
brought about by technological innovation and positive external forces.[1]

The
engine of economic growth is the development of local businesses (firms) that
are entirely dependent upon external or non county opportunities and factors. The
identification of this economic base is definitionally part of :... the oldest,
simplest and most widely used technique for regional economic analysis." in
economic theory.[2] It is important to bear in mind that while the retail sector is a crucial component, it is a member of the non-basic economic sector that is
composed of businesses and organizations which depend for the most part upon local business conditions such as the
size of our wallets and therefore the size of the federal budget.[3] This is a direct reflection on the lack of focus on generating products and services in the private (basic) sector so that national and international markets would have to come here and leave their money here in Prince George's County.

We need
to find the political will to enable economic development strategies, policies
and outcomes that firmly recognize that our economy will be strongest when it
develops those economic sectors that are not inextricably linked to the local economy. Prince George's
County needs to encourage, entice and enable business development that relies
first and foremost on external markets. A
local economy wholly dependent upon local factors will have great trouble
responding to economic down-turns as we can see firsthand. An economic development
strategy of real-estate and construction only may be a tactic, but cannot be
the end-all mechanism for long term growth.

Some may
say that Prince George's County is committed to development guided by the
economy, the environment, and growth with equity. History tells us otherwise.
Since the time of County Senator and later US Congressman Sasscer in the 1930s
up to the present, development has been mostly about maximizing the sales price of open space and generation of short
term profits for the construction industry resulting in the creation of homes
and retail service employment opportunities.[4] The
Sasscer political organization was far from unique for, in the 20th century,
most Americans moved to cities, and the new form of properties ordinary people accumulated
were their houses.

Because
property and the structures on it (real estate) were the fundamental engines of
wealth creation, political realities compelled responses that began to direct government to
subsidize that property in the form of low- or no-interest mortgages and tax
deductions for interest payments and to instigate policies, plans and regulations which encouraged and enhanced
property owners' equity positions at the cost of the needs, concerns and demands of the greater community.
Simply put, the demands and expectation of the few were and are met at the expense
and needs of the many. So we do the least amount to maximize the greatest
profit letting future infrastructure costs and neighborhood problems to be paid
for by others tomorrow.

We need to dream a little to get big things. We need the political will to imagine international technology markets that need the science already generated right here4 right now. Unlike many communities we do not need to go find the research; it has been right here in our backyards for over a hundred years waiting for us to take advantage of the opportunities of the 21st century.

"For example, Boeing builds and
sells large airplanes to companies and countries located throughout the world.
Their business is dependent almost entirely upon non-local firms. Boeing does
not sell planes to families or households locally, so their business is very
much dependent upon exporting their goods. Manufacturing and local
resource-oriented firms (like logging or mining) are usually considered to be
basic sector firms because their fortunes depend largely upon non-local factors,
they usually export their goods."

"For example, a local grocery store sells its goods to local
households, businesses, and individuals. Its clientele is locally based and,
therefore, its products are consumed locally. Almost all local services (like
drycleaners, restaurants, and drug stores) are identified as non-basic because
they depend almost entirely on local factors."

"Therefore, while economic development projects are often heavily
subsidized by taxpayer dollars, they produce decidedly mixed results for city dwellers.While
many of these projects bring sorely needed jobs and tax revenues back to areas that
have been disinvested, there is usually no guarantee that the “ripple effects”
of the projects will benefit current residents. Many new developments cause
inner-city gentrification, pushing out low-income residents as housing prices
rise. Other projects create large numbers of dead-end low-wage retail and
service sector jobs, leaving low income, families, mostly people of color, mired
in an endless cycle of poverty. While some Smart Growth proponents have
advanced the notion that development should be governed by the “Three E’s”—the
economy, the environment, and equity—few if any jurisdictions have pursued “growth
with equity” policies in a systematic way. Consequently, even after investing
billions of dollars in economic development, metropolitan regions continue to
experience spiraling poverty, sprawling, unplanned growth, a crisis of
affordable housing and declining quality of life for low and middle-income
communities."

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Is Prince George's County,
Maryland ready to become the national economic center for biological and agricultural research,
technology and innovation? Surprise! - it already is; we just don't take advantage of the fact. Can we pause
long enough from our focus on shopping malls to ponder the possibilities of
working together to bring business to a national one stop solution to
agroeconomic challenges facing the world today? Is it possible to collectively
begin to take advantage of our core capabilities already here in the business
industries of food, fuel, fiber, feed, forest and flowers? Why are we still not
actively working to create international trade centers dedicated to businesses
that need the scientific advancements are found here in the county every day?[1]

Prince George's County is home to
University of Maryland-College Park (UMCP), the US Department of
Agriculture-Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (USDA-BARC) as well as the
world's largest agricultural library, the National Auricular Library (NAL), the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), the
MedStar Research Institute, the US Animal Plant Health Inspection Service
(APHIS), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Goddard
Spaceflight Center (NASA Goddard) and Bowie State University (BSU). And most importantly,
these world renown and world class institutions are ALREADY here.

Where is our political will to
sit down with businesses in Brazil and South American countries, China, India,
and the countries of Asia as well as Africa discussing the creating of research
and trade centers? The world needs food, and Prince George's County can provide
a one stop center for all the food chain problems and challenges facing
businesses, governments and their customers today and tomorrow. We fall over
ourselves to bring federal and state agencies here, and I
vigorously support this effort, but we already have tremendous resources
and what exactly are we doing to leverage what we already have?[2]
We can do both work to bring facilities here and work to find economic
development opportunities with what we have.

Did you know that U.S. wheat
exports to Brazil were rejected in 2000 because of suspected Wheat Seed Gall
Nematode infections. Scientist in Prince George's County at BARC working with Brazilian scientists,
convinced Brazil to reverse its actions. US national wheat exports to Brazil
rose from $0 in 2000 to $76 million in 2001. This is an example of the power of
Prince George's County. Do you like chocolate; do you
think the rest of the US has a craving for chocolate? Prince George's County's
BARC scientists, working with industry counterparts, discovered a fungus that
inhibits a devastating disease on cacao trees. The $8.6 billion U.S. chocolate
industry depends entirely on imported chocolate. The chocolate industry uses
40% of US almonds, 20% of peanuts, 8% of sugar, and more than 1.5 million lbs.
of milk per day, all produced by U.S. farms, so a stable supply of chocolate
helps U.S. farmers.Do you know of any
current plan to take advantage of this and bring businesses here to the one
place in the US that can address any agrobiotech issue?[3]

Perhaps the magnitude of the
opportunity that Prince George's County is overlooking is obscure. [4]
The Agricultural Research Service according to its web site "conducts research
to develop and transfer solutions to agricultural problems of high national
priority and provides information access and dissemination to: ensure
high-quality, safe food and other agricultural products, assess the nutritional
needs of Americans, sustain a competitive agricultural economy, enhance the
natural resource base and the environment, and provide economic opportunities for
rural citizens."[5]
What follows is a partial listing of
private business opportunities that Prince George's County could offer because
the world's largest 21st century agricultural research center sits here in this county hidden
in plain sight:

Do I need to remind you of the
impact of NASA? When is the last time you took a look at what Goddard Space
Flight Center Patent Portfolio has in it?
NASA's Technologies Available for License is among the too many to list
here opportunities for businesses one mobile robotic unit. The unit has
multiple legs supporting a main body i.e. vehicle body, and moving the main
body in forward direction and reverse direction about a base surface. The leg
includes wheels to roll along the base surface. A drive assembly comprises a
motor operatively associated with hip and knee joints and the wheels for
independently driving pivotal movement of the hip joint and the knee joint and
rolling motion of the wheels. The assembly comprises drive shafts imparting
driving pivotal movement to the hip and knee joint and rolling motion to the
wheels.[6]

Why is it that
despite the concentration of such impressive assets, "the number of
bioscience companies and the impact of bioscience industry growth in the county
has been limited compared with nearby jurisdictions which have fewer research
and innovation assets?"[7] We need a National
Harbor type, hi tech 21st century, multi-tenant, flagship facility. We need to
work with USDA's leasing authority to
create incubators or
aaccelerator/expansion offices and wet lab spaces for young
bioscience companies, such as TAP incubator graduates, to keep them in the
county, as well as other small, but growing companies that could be
attracted to the county. We need to provide support services for start-up
companies and entrepreneurs. We need to be reaping the befits of a highly competitive
highly trained well paid 21st century work force. We need to start doing
something after all the opportunity as only been here for over 100 years.

[1] I
am not against retail; rather I am for a balanced approach to economic
development - I want a clearly visible active pursuit of 21st century
businesses in Prince George's County. Retail is a secondary reason for
businesses to locate; opportunity to create wealth is the primary reason and
retail wil; follow the creation of wealth